The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has given a two weeks ultimatum to 12 companies under the Fast Track Scheme to pay their outstanding duties and taxes of over N15.5 billion or face legal action.
The NCS said in a public notice issued over the weekend that the 12 beneficiary companies have continued to abuse the Fast Track arrangement by refusing to pay appropriate duties and taxes due to the Federal Government.
The Fast Track Scheme was part of Customs’ effort to facilitate smooth clearance of goods of compliant importers especially multinational and institutional importers with good track record of not being involved in any sharp or criminal practice.
The notice read in part: “The Nigeria Customs Service notes with regret that despite the efforts put in place to ensure smooth clearance procedure, where companies are allowed to carry their cargoes on Fast Track lane to facilitate trade and cut costs to consumers, the under-listed beneficiary companies have continued to abuse the spirit of these arrangement by refusing to pay appropriate duties and taxes due to the Federal Government.”
NCS stated that all effort by the management to recover the duties and taxes owed by the companies have not yielded any result, hence “the Service is constrained to issue a two-week ultimatum effective from the day of this publication (Friday) to all affected companies to come and pay all their outstanding liabilities or face legal sanction.”
The affected companies are MV Onome and Oritsemeyin (Calabar) with the highest outstanding duty liability of N3.579 billion followed by Dana Motors with a debt of N2.211 billion, Saipem/ Total has a debt of N2.001 billion while BUA has N1.853 billion debt to remit to the government.
Others are: Hyundai Motors with N1.688 billion, Stallion Motors has N1.073 billion, Axxis Petroconsultants N858.457 million and Arik Air N845.676 million
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